Ignoring her question, he said, “Why do you avoid me, lady?”
Gently she spoke. “There is this thing growing between us that may not be. It sprang into existence the moment you first came to us, Tomas.”
Almost with a note of amusement, Tomas said, “Before that, lady, from the first I gazed upon you.” He stood tall over her. “And why may this thing not be? Who better to sit at your side?”
She moved away from him, her control lost for a brief moment. In that instant he saw what few had ever seen: the Elf Queen confused and unsure, doubting her own ancient wisdom. “Whatever else, you are man. Despite what powers are granted you, it is a man’s span allotted to you. I will reign until my spirit travels to the Blessed Isles to be with my lord, who has already made the journey. Then Calin rules, as son of a king, as King. Thus it is with my people.”
Tomas reached for her and turned her to face him. “It was not always so.”
Her eyes showed a spark of fear. “No, we were not always a free people.”
She sensed impatience within him, but she also saw him struggle with it as he forced his voice to calmness. “Do you then feel nothing?”
She took a step away. “I would lie if I said not. But it is a strange pulling, and something that fills me with uncertainty and with no small dread. If you become more the Valheru, more than the man can master, then we could not welcome you here. We would not allow the return of the Old Ones.”
Tomas laughed, with a strange mixture of humor and bitterness. “As a boy I beheld you and was filled with a boy’s longing. Now I am a man and behold you with a man’s longing. Is the power that makes me bold enough to seek you out, the power that gives me the means to do so, that which will also keep us apart?”
Aglaranna put her hand to her cheek. “I know not. It has never been with the royal family to be other than what we are. Others may seek alliance with humans. I would not have that sadness when you are old and grey and I am still as you see me.”
Tomas’s eyes flashed, and his voice gained a harsh edge. “That will never happen, lady I shall live a thousand years in this glade. Of that I have no doubt. But I shall trouble you no more . . . until other matters are settled. This thing is willed by fate to be, Aglaranna. You will come to know that.”
She stood with her hand raised to her mouth, and her eyes moist with emotion. He walked away, leaving her alone in her court to consider what he had said. For the first time since her Lord-King had passed over, Aglaranna knew two conflicting emotions: fear and longing.
Tomas turned at a shout from the edge of the clearing. An elf was walking from the trees followed by a simply dressed man. He stopped his conversation with Calin and Dolgan, and the three hurried to follow the stranger as he was guided up to the Queen’s court. Aglaranna sat on her throne, her elders arranged on benches to either side. Tathar stood next to the Queen.
The stranger approached the throne and made a slight bow. Tathar threw a quick glance at the sentry who had escorted the man, but the elf looked bemused. The man in brown said, “Greetings, lady,” in perfect elvish.
Aglaranna answered in the King’s Tongue. “You come boldly among us, stranger.”
The man smiled, leaning on his staff. “Still, I did seek a guide, for I would not enter Elvandar unbidden.”
Tathar said, “I think yon guide had little choice.”
The man said, “There is always a choice, though it is not always apparent.”
Tomas stepped forward. “What is your purpose here?”
Turning at the voice, the man smiled “Ah! The wearer of the dragon’s gift. Well met, Tomas of Crydee.”
Tomas stepped back. The man’s eyes radiated power, and his easy manner veiled strength that Tomas could feel. “Who are you?”
The man said, “I have many names, but here I am called Macros the Black.” He pointed with his staff and swept it around the gathered watchers. “I have come, for you have embarked upon a bold plan.” At the last, he pointed his staff at Tomas. He dropped the tip and leaned on the staff again. “But the plan to capture a Black Robe will bring naught but destruction to Elvandar should you not have my aid.” He smiled slightly. “A Black Robe you shall have in time, but not yet.” There was a hint of irony in his voice.
Aglaranna arose. Her shoulders were back, and her eyes looked straight into his. “You know much.”
Macros inclined his head slightly “Aye, I know much, more than is sometimes comforting.” He stepped past her and placed a hand upon Tomas’s shoulder. Guiding Tomas to a seat near where the Queen stood, Macros forced him to sit with a gentle pressure on his shoulder. He took a seat next to him and laid the staff against the crook of his neck and shoulder. Looking at the Queen, he said, “The Tsurari come at first light, and they will drive straight through to Elvandar.”
Tathar stepped before Macros and said, “How do you know this?”
Macros smiled again. “Do you not remember me in council with your father?”
Tathar stepped back, his eyes widening. “You . . .”
“I am he, though I am no longer called as I was then.”
Tathar looked troubled. “So long ago. I would not have thought it possible.”
Macros said, “Much is possible.” He looked pointedly from the Queen to Tomas.
Aglaranna slowly sat down, masking her discomfort. “Are you the sorcerer?”
Macros nodded. “So I am called, though there is more in the tale than can be told now. Will you heed me?”
Tathar nodded to the Queen. “Long ago, this one came to our aid. I do not understand how it can be the same man, but he was then a true friend to your father and mine. He can be trusted.”
“What, then, is your counsel?” asked the Queen.
“The Tsurani magicians have marked your sentries, knowing where they hide. At first light they will come, breaking across the river in two waves, like the horns of a bull. As you meet them, a wave of the creatures called cho-ja will come through the center, where your strength is weak. They have not thrown them against you yet, but the dwarves can tell you of their skill in warfare.”
Dolgan stepped forward. “Aye, lady. They are fearsome creatures and fight in the dark as well as do my people. I had thought them confined to the mines.”
Macros said, “And so they were, until the raids. They have brought up a host of them, which ready themselves across the river, beyond the sight of your scouts. They will come in numbers. The Tsurani tire of your raids and would put an end to the warring across the river. Their magicians have worked hard to learn the secrets of Elvandar, and now they know that should the sacred heart of the elven forests fall, the elves will be a force no longer.”
Tomas said, “Then we shall hold back, and defend against the center.”
Macros sat quietly for a moment, as if remembering something. “That is a start, but they bring their magicians with them, anxious as they are for an ending. Their magic will let their warriors pass through your forests unchecked by the power of your Spellweavers, and here they will come.”
Aglaranna said, “Then we shall meet them here and stand until the end.”
Macros nodded. “Bravely said, lady, but you will need my aid.”
Dolgan studied the sorcerer. “What can one man do?”
Macros stood. “Much. Upon the morrow, you shall see. Fear not, dwarf, the battle will be harsh, and many will travel to the Blessed Isles, but with firm resolve, we shall prevail.”
Tomas said, “You speak like one who has already seen these things happen.”
Macros smiled, and his eyes said a thousand things, and nothing. “I do, Tomas of Crydee, do I not?” He turned to the others and with a sweep of his staff said, “Ready yourselves. I shall be with you.” To the Queen he said, “I would rest; if you have a place for me?”
The Queen turned to the elf who had brought Macros to the council. “Take him to a room, bring him whatever he requires.”
The sorcerer bowed and followed the guide. The others
stood in silence, until Tomas said, “Let us make ready.”
As night gave way to dawn, the Queen stood alone near her throne. In all the years of her rule, she had never known a time like this. Her thoughts ran with hundreds of images, from times as long ago as her youth, and as recently as two nights ago.
“Seeking answers in the past, lady?”
She turned to see the sorcerer standing behind her, leaning on his staff. He approached and stood next to her.
“Can you read my mind, sorcerer?”
With a smile and a wave of his hand, Macros said, “No, my lady. But there is much I do know and can see. Your heart is heavy, and your mind burdened.”
“Do you understand why?”
Macros laughed softly. “Without question. Still, I would speak to you of these things.”
“Why, sorcerer? What part ,do you play?”
Macros looked out over the lights of Elvandar “A part, much as any man plays.”
“But you know yours well.”
“True. It is given to some to understand what is obscure to others. Such is my fate.”
“Why have you come?”
“Because there is need. Without me Elvandar may fall, and that must not be. It is so ordained, and I can only do my part.”
“Will you stay if the battle is won?”
“No. I have other tasks. But I will come once more, when the need is again great.”
“When?”
“That I may not tell you.”
“Will it be soon?”
“Soon enough, though not soon enough.”
“You speak in riddles.”
Macros smiled, a crooked, sad smile. “Life is a riddle. It is in the hands of the gods. Their will shall prevail, and many mortals will find their lives changed.”
“Tomas?” Aglaranna looked deep into the sorcerer’s dark eyes.
“He most visibly, but all who live through these times.”
“What is he?”
“What would you have him be?”
The Elf Queen found herself unable to answer. Macros placed his hand lightly on her shoulder. She felt calm flow from his fingers and heard herself say, “I would wish nothing of trouble upon my people, but the sight of him fills me with longing. I long for a man . . . a man with his . . . might. Tomas is more like my lost lord than he will ever know. And I fear him, for once I make the pledge, once I place him above me, I lose the power to rule. Do you think the elders would allow this? My people would never willingly place the yoke of the Valheru upon their necks again.”
The sorcerer was silent for a time, then said, “For all my arts, there are things hidden from me, but understand this: there is a magic here fey beyond imagining. I cannot explain save to say it reaches across time, more than is apparent. For while the Valheru is present within Tomas now, so is Tomas present within the Valheru in ages past.
“Tomas wears the garb of Ashen-Shugar, last of the Dragon Lords. When the Chaos Wars raged, he alone remained upon this world, for he felt things alien to his kind.”
“Tomas?”
Macros smiled. “Think not upon this overly long, lady. These sorts of paradox can send the mind reeling. What Ashen-Shugar felt was an obligation to protect this world.”
Aglaranna studied Macros’s face in the twinkling lights of Elvandar. “You know more of the ancient lore than any other man, sorcerer.”
“I have been . . . given much, lady.” He looked over the elven forests and spoke more to himself than to the Queen: “Soon will come a time of testing for Tomas. I cannot be sure what will occur, but this much I do know. Somehow the boy from Crydee, in his love for you and yours, in his simple human caring, has so far withstood the most powerful member of the most powerful mortal race ever to have lived upon this world. And he is well served in withstanding the terrible pain of that conflict of two natures by the soft arts of your Spellweavers.”
She looked hard at Macros. “You know of this?”
He laughed with genuine amusement. “Lady, I am not without some vanity. I’m stung you’d think you could fashion so fine a spellweaving without my observing. Little magic in this world escapes my notice. What you have done is wise and may tip the balance in Tomas’s favor.”
“That is the thought I plead to myself,” said Aglaranna quietly, “when I see in Tomas a lord to match the King of my youth, the husband taken too soon from my side. Can it be true?”
“Should he survive the time of testing, yes. It may be the conflict will prove the end of both Tomas and Ashen-Shugar. But should Tomas survive, he may become what you most secretly long for.
“Now I shall tell you something only the gods and I know, I can judge many things yet to come, but much is still unknown to me. One thing I know is this: at your side Tomas may grow to rule wisely and well and, as his youth is replaced by wisdom, grow to be the lord of your wishes, if his power can somehow be tempered by his human heart. Should he be sent away, a terrible fate may await both the Kingdom and the free peoples of the West.”
Her eyes asked the question, and he continued. “I cannot see into that dark future, lady; I can only surmise. Should he come into his powers with the dark side in preeminence, he will be a terrible force, one that must be destroyed. Those who see the battle madness come upon him see but a shadow of the true darkness bound up within him. Even if a balance is struck and Tomas’s humanity survives, but still you send him away, then humanity’s capacity for anger, pain, and hate may come forth. I ask you: should Tomas be driven away and someday raise the dragon standard in the north, what would occur?”
The Queen became frightened and openly showed it, her mask of control lost completely. “The moredhel would gather.”
“Aye, my lady. Not as bands of troublesome bandits, but as a host. Twenty thousand Dark Brothers, and with them a hundred thousand goblins, and companies of men whose dark nature would seek profit in the destruction and savagery to follow. A mighty army under the steel glove of a warrior born, a general whom even your own people follow without question.”
“Do you advise me to keep him here?”
“I can only point out the alternatives. You must decide.”
The Elf Queen threw back her head, her red-gold locks flying and her eyes moist, looking out over Elvandar. The first light of day was breaking. Rosy light lanced through the trees, casting shadows of deep blue. The morning songs of birds could be heard around the glades She turned to Macros, wishing to thank him for his counsel, and found him gone.
The Tsurani advanced as Macros had foretold. The cho-ja attacked across the river, after the two human waves had carried the flanks. Tomas had set skirmishers, lines of bowmen with a few shield guards, who retreated and fired into the advancing army, giving the impression of resistance.
Tomas stood before the assembled army of Elvandar and the dwarves of the Grey Towers, only fifteen hundred arrayed against the six thousand invaders and their magicians. In silence they waited. As the enemy approached, the shouts of Tsurani warriors and the cries of those who fell to elvish arrows could be heard through the forest. Tomas looked up at the Queen, standing on a balcony overlooking the scene of the coming battle, next to the sorcerer.
Suddenly elves were running toward them, and the first flashes of brightly colored Tsurani armor could be seen through the trees. When the skirmishers had rejoined the main force, Tomas raised his sword.
“Wait,” a voice cried out from above, and the sorcerer pointed across the open clearing, where the first elements of the Tsurani forces were running into the clearing. Confronted by the waiting elven army, the vanguard halted and waited as their comrades joined them. Their officers ordered ranks formed, for here was fighting they could understand, two armies meeting on an open plain, and the advantage was theirs.
The cho-ja also stood in ordered ranks, heeding the officers’ shouted commands Tomas was fascinated, for he still knew little of these creatures and counted them animals as much as intelligent allies of the Tsurani.
Macros shouted, “Wait!” again, and waved his staff above his head, inscribing broad circles in the air. A stillness descended upon the glade.
Suddenly an owl flew past Tomas’s head, straight for the Tsurani lines. It circled above the aliens for a moment, then swooped and struck a soldier in the face. The man screamed in pain as its talons clawed his eyes.
A hawk sped past and duplicated the owl’s attack. Then a large black rook descended from the sky. A flight of sparrows erupted from the trees behind the Tsurani and pecked at faces and unprotected arms. Birds came flying from every part of the forest and attacked the invaders. Soon the air was filled with the sound of flapping wings as every manner of bird in the forest descended upon the Tsurani. Thousands of them, from the smallest hummingbird to the mighty eagle, attacked the out-world host. Men cried out, and a few broke formation and ran, trying to avoid the wicked beaks and talons that tried to scratch at eyes, pull at cloaks, and tear flesh. The cho-ja reared, for though their armored hide was immune to the pecking and clawing, their large, jewellike eyes were easy targets for the feathered attackers.
A shout went up from the elves as the Tsurani lines dissolved in disorder. Tomas gave the order, and elven bowmen added feathered arrows to the fray. Tsurani soldiers were struck and fell before they could come to grips with the enemy. Their own bowmen could not return the fire, for they were harried by a hundred tiny foes.
The elves watched as the Tsurani tried to hold position, while the birds continued their bloody work in their midst. The Tsurani fought back as best they could, striking down many birds in midflight, but for each one killed, three took its place.
Suddenly a hissing, tearing sound cut through the din. There was an instant of silence as everything moving on the Tsurani side of the clearing seemed to pause. Then the birds exploded upward, accompanied by a sizzling crackle of energy, as if thrown back by some unseen force. As the birds cleared the area, Tomas could see the black robes of the Tsurani magicians as they moved through their forces, restoring order. Hundreds of wounded Tsurani lay upon the ground, but the battle-tempered aliens quickly re-formed their lines, ignoring the injured.